


Within These Walls

by quillsandinkwells



Series: This Old House [2]
Category: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, minor mentions of original characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28005978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quillsandinkwells/pseuds/quillsandinkwells
Summary: Parents are fallible, and Fitzwilliam learns this lesson the hard way.
Relationships: Anne Darcy/Mr. Darcy Sr., Anne Darcy/Original Character(s), Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mr. Darcy Sr./Original Female Character(s)
Series: This Old House [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051220
Kudos: 28





	Within These Walls

**I.** The first people a child idolizes are their parents. Their father is strong and all-knowing, their mother is benevolent and wise. But what happens when that image is shattered?

**II.** The man his mother was kissing wasn’t his father. He was too short and his hair was too light and an odd smell hung in his mother’s sitting room. His father’s cigars didn’t smell like this man’s. His father was not in London. This was wrong and his mother shouldn’t be kissing this man like Henry-the-footman kissed Betsy-the-chambermaid when they thought no one saw. Mother looked very sad but also angry. Father must not know, she said. Keep quiet, Fitzwilliam. Don’t tell don’t tell don’t tell.

**III.** Mother died. Georgiana was small and red and cried a lot. Father said, “She’s your sister, and it’s your responsibility to protect her”. Protect her, like he protected Mother.

**IV.** Father knew about Mother’s affair. Or affairs, if he heard them correctly. He and Grandmother whispered about it behind closed doors—Grandmother was worried Georgiana may not be his father’s child, but he told her otherwise. Fitzwilliam’s stomach knotted at the thought of how long he had kept this from his father. A promise is a promise and an order is an order and no matter the justification, a lie is still a lie.

**V.** When Fitzwilliam came home from his first year at Eton, his father was married. Lady Darcy (Stepmother?) was only _nine years older_ than he. Perhaps it was good for Georgiana to have a mother now. It wasn’t like she would ever remember theirs. But this woman was taking his mother’s place. She could never do that, no matter the sins his mother may have committed. She would never be a real member of his family. She told him to call her Helen. That suited him just fine.

**VI.** The facts: Father was injured—no, Father was dead. Helen and Georgiana were fine from the accident, though grieving deeply. The next ship from Italy sailed tomorrow at dawn. The facts were hard, but so easy. The rest was not. Everything was going to go to hell the moment he stepped back on Pemberley’s grounds, but at twenty-three, Fitzwilliam was certain of one thing, and one thing only: his sister, his father’s wife, his home, his tenants—they were all his responsibility.

**VII.** Helen and Georgiana were off visiting the Keatts, neither particularly caring for London, when Elizabeth Bennet blew into his life. What a marvelous place to be introduced to people, a ball, especially one hosted by one’s closest friend. She was vivacious and stubborn and a breath of fresh air for a too-old young man. Fitzwilliam had long come to appreciate his stepmother, but if this was how his father felt when he met Helen, he understood why Beaumont remarried. He longed to speak to his father about Elizabeth—about the next Mrs. Darcy.

**Author's Note:**

> the sequel to "What Makes a Match" that's been sitting on my computer for three years because I forgot to polish it....


End file.
